In the past medical imaging such as x-rays were recorded on film and digital images were stored on digital film using film laser printers, which is expensive, bulky and difficult to store. Also, the original digital data might have to be modified so it can be printed using a laser printer since most printers can not handle high resolution or high quality digital data. Digital image storage allows storage and retrieval of original digital data on discs and transmittal of images over communications systems such as the internet.
There are printers combined with CD recording devices for printing on the disc that has just been recorded.
Medical imaging data is frequently manually stored on CD's and filed for later use in doctor's offices, hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities. The medical images may be generated by x-rays, cat scans, magnetic resonance images, sonograms or other image generating technologies.
Medical imaging data can be transmitted from one location to another over the internet or other communication system for recording the data. The filing and record keeping of the images thus received is a problem. It is a labor-intensive and error-prone task to gather information about each disc, write out labels and attach the labels to the discs, or write directly on the disc for storing and filing. It is very useful to have the information contained on a disc printed on the disc for reference and filing and for automatically creating a directory of the information stored on all the discs recorded in an office.